Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Birthday Special!ValhallahanHola and welcome to the belated What I Got and Why. Delayed because I was busy preparing for and subsequently recovering from the Hellbilly Hoedown that was my birthday celebrations. In this weeks comics we've got thrills, spills, Pop-Art Zombies, Curmudgeonly Cowboys, Japanese Judges, Manimal Babies, whatever Umbrella Academy's about and a Missing Monkey (well, Gorilla Man but y'know).

Jonah Hex #58, Captain America #608 - These, alongside The Walking Dead, Scalped and a couple of others are just bloody great every month. I’m going to have to do a proper post on each of them in time, but suffice to say they don't disappoint. I even liked the Nomad back up strip in Cap this month.

iZombie #4 - This is... I'm not sure what this is. I am enjoying the finding out though. Quite a lot of answers are given this week, whether they satisfy or not is a different story.

Gorilla Man #2 - I really enjoyed part one, despite a few really annoying art glitches (how can we see his hand in an image that’s recorded by a camera in his watch?). Haven’t actually found a copy yet, but it's on the list. I do hope they keep putting this sort of thing out even though Atlas has been cancelled.

Sweet Tooth #12 - In which we finally find out about the plague/epidemic that wiped out most of the world's population, and what correlation the characters see in there in the appearance of the hybrid chidren. This series is a bizarre ride, and I’m loving every minute of it.

Spitfire #1 - I didn't even realise this was coming out, so thanks to Action Ash for bringing it to my attention. It’s a Spitfire story, but really it’s a continuation of Paul Cornell’s MI:13 work. Highly enjoyable, but there's not too much to say about it really.

Ooh Presents!

Umbrella Academy & Umbrella Academy Dallas - I've been meaning to try these for a while now, as I've heard good things and I love Gabriel Ba's artwork. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into them.

Shimura - I remember reading a good chunk of this when it was originally published in Judge Dredd: The Megazine in the early nineties. It’s set in the Japan of Judge Dredd's world, following Judge Shimura’s struggle against the corrupt the Judge system of Hondo Cit. Sports some lovely early work from Frank Quietly among others. I'm really enjoying it, even if half the first story was a complete rip of Cyber City Oedo.

The Mammoth Book of Horror Comics - Dirt cheap and well worth your time. This book reprints a shit-tonne of old horror strips in black and white. An interesting mixture newish and really old stories, with some surprisingly big names.